Chapter 3
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It was either his most rock bottom lowest of points or it was a breakthrough of some kind that might lead to some kind of actual positive change. Either way Tony hadn't had a full two hours sleep in any given forty-eight hour period since the whole "half the population being turned to dust" thing happened as he's been up due to Morgan's nightmares or his own.
He had to admit that he needed a break.
Rhodey was busy juggling so many things now that there wasn't much of any World Governments or World Leadership left to speak of and thus there wasn't really much of any Command Structure left either so it was all left for the next "Highest Ranking Officials" left or "The Next or Last In Line" for whatever thrones or seats or offices there were left to be held.
Rhodey was currently calling as many living Members of The US Military he could Reach to restructure some sort of Chain of Command. The US Government was short an entire Senate, several Governors, a President, The whole Presidential Cabinet, six Supreme Court Justices and that was only what Rhodey could get confirmation on, for as far as Tony knew that might not even be scraping the tip of the iceberg. Then there was the disappearances of several Members of several Royal Families leaving some obscure long lost descendants to be tracked down by whichever Countries were needing to quickly fill the roles of missing leaders.
Some places in the world were evolving towards Utopia while other places were devolving into disaster while some were just trying to ride everything out while trying to maintain everything and attempt to keep it all close to the same sort of familiarity that their Citizens were used to.
So Tony didn't want to bug Rhodey.
Happy was similarly busy trying to keep everything in The Tower running and yet still appropriately secure because Stark Industries was still a business with potentially highly classified materials within despite The Tower having been opened to house various displaced members of the public.
So, tired and desperate, Tony got the shell of his daughter ready and picked her up and carried her down to the area that had been set up for the younger orphans.
Was he feeling horrible that he was about to ask the workers down there that were already dealing with several traumatized children that had lost their whole families if they could please simply watch just one more, only half-orphaned child for a couple of hours like it was some kind of daycare down there? Yes. He did feel bad.
As he was heading to the area set up for the younger kids, he passed by a teenaged boy that had curly brown hair and big brown eyes.
The teenaged boy stopped in his tracks and whirled around.
"Sir? Sir? Stop! Please wait?"
Tony stopped realizing that the kid was calling out to him specifically and trying to jig slightly to catch up the few steps that Tony had gotten ahead of him.
"I apologize, but I see you must have somehow lost your badge!" The teenaged boy said in a winded sounding exclamation. "And while I know it probably was just an accident or an oversight, we do all have to be wearing our badge at all times!"
With eyebrows raising Tony took a step back and looked at his reflection in the glass of a darkened office door.
His hair and beard were both long, shaggy, greasy, his face was gaunt, his body looked a bit underweight, his dark circles under his eyes each had their own sets of luggage and he was wearing last week sweat stains on the pits of his light gray Metallica shirt and his joggers were saggy and threadbare. Add in the dirty socks peeking out of his black open toed Nike slides. It was no wonder the kid now in front of him didn't recognize him. Tony looked worse than he did when he was in Afghanistan. And.. Nope.. Definitely not going to crack open any flashbacks from that mountain of trauma right then and there for some random strange teenaged boy to witness!
"Um???.." Tony tried to think of something, anything. He suddenly didn't want the kid to know who he was. The kid would probably be embarrassed or start falling over himself apologizing because he might come to the knee-jerk conclusion that he had just endangered the housing situations of everyone taking up residency in The Tower and Tony didn't want the kid to be embarrassed or to feel bad or to panic.
"I don't have one? I was looking for.." Tony thought just pretending to be not Tony Stark might be the easiest solution.
"Oh!" The boy exclaimed "You need to register! That's why I didn't recognize you! My apologies, I can show you exactly where to go to get registered. I apologize now since it seems you haven't already met Mister Hogan, he may seem grumpy and like everything that breaths is an annoying inconvenience but he's really a marshmallow when you get to know him. Although after you get yourself and... Your daughter?.." to which Tony nodded and the the boy continued on "Registered and get yourselves both badges, I wouldn't suggest letting Mister Hogan catch you without a badge on, he will definitely be very obviously grumpy about that and some of the conditions that we all have for being able to live here is to have a Security Badge everywhere we go and to stay and/or be only in the areas for which we are approved to be in and going against those rules could endanger not just your own but everyone else's ability to continue living here. So, please for not just your own sake but your daughter's and the sakes of everyone else that has found a temporary home here, please do not break the rules. Of course Mister Hogan will go over and explain everything to you.."
"Oh.. No.. Um.. I work here?" Tony replied after the kid finally took a breath long enough for Tony to interrupt. "The building's AI automatically recognizes some of the more high level employees via biological scans, eye scans and fingerprint readings.."
"Oh .. uh .." The kid looked sheepish and apologetic "I didn't know that.. Mister Hogan was very repetitive about how everyone had to have a badge on them at all times, no excuses, including Stark Industries Employees.. He never said anything about anyone being exempt from that rule. Is it okay if we stop by his office together and just simply ask him about this so that???... Well... I can't let these people that Stark Industries have so generously opened their doors to be kicked out into the streets over me not going straight to Mister Hogan the second I saw you with no badge..."
"Okay.. yeah fine.." Tony replied in a huff... Happy was probably never going to let him hear the end of this but Tony couldn't let the kid work himself up into a worried frenzy and possibly have the kid sic Tony's own security on him. Maybe he could get Happy to play along so he wouldn't have to watch the kid probably have some kind of meltdown.
The kid very politely knocked on the door to Happy's office and when Happy gave a gruff "What?" From the other side, the kid pushed open the door.
"Sorry to bug you with this Mister Hogan..." The kid said as he entered and held the door open so Tony could also get in while his arms were full with Morgan "But this man and his little girl were in the hall without any badges. But he swears he works here and has a high enough clearance to not need one?" The boy's voice rose in a clear question at the end as Happy looked up looking ready to bite off someone's head when The Head of Security swallowed what he was about to say and only tilted his head in irritated question.
"Sorry about this." Tony said. "My name is Edward... Uh.." Tony looked at his shirt "Gray... And if you just search the database.."
Happy gave Tony deadpan look as if to say "Seriously?" because the man had clearly caught Tony's fumble in trying to think of a last name and Tony's last ditch effort was to go with the current color of his shirt.
Tony gave a sideways head gesture at the teenaged boy in the room with them and mouthed "Play along" at Happy.
Happy pinched the bridge of his nose and pretended to look something up on his computer.
"Yep.. Here you are... Edward Gray... Head of Janitorial Duties and Maintenance. One of the only positions within Stark Industries' Staff not required to wear a badge because having anything dangling from your neck or clothes could be considered a safety hazard." Happy said almost gleefully. Now it was Tony's turn to give Happy a deadpan look. Happy simply shrugged with a subtle barely there grin on his face. "But good work for trying to make sure everyone is following the rules at all times, Parker." Happy said and sounded like he was giving the boy genuine praise.
The boy shuffled looking sheepish "Again, I am so sorry l, sir. I just couldn't have the lives of everyone we're trying to help uprooted.."
"Wait... Parker?...." Tony said.. "As in?..."
"My Aunt, May Parker is the one that set up F.E.A.S.T." the boy said proudly with a nod.
Happy smiled genuinely at that "That's right and Peter, here is a really big help with making sure everything gets done correctly without a hitch. He's a real big help with keeping The Tower secure."
High praise, especially coming from Happy Hogan himself.
"Um.. you said you were looking for..." Peter said slowly "something or someone when I stopped you in the hallway. Please I hope you forgive me for interrupting you while you were trying to tell me what or who it was you were trying to find.."
Crap... Tony had actually forgotten about that bit.. and now once he said what he was looking for and why.. Happy would know Tony had needed to have someone look after Morgan and hadn't asked him of all people for help.
"Well.. I heard there was a group of younger kids being housed here and I was hoping to..."
"Oh the younger kids would all love a new friend!" The teenaged boy exclaimed. "Of course she can come hang out in the room with them all. Right now they're all having art time."
"Oh.. Is that so?" Tony asked slightly amused.
"Yeah, normally I'm in charge of helping in the room with the youngest kids but today my best friend Ned is helping out while I help out with all the new Intake Paperwork Today. I was heading up to use the printer when I found you. Oh! I should get back to what I'm supposed to be doing!" The boy exclaimed and shot up out of his chair.
"Actually wait!" Happy exclaimed "You can show Mister Gray here the way to the room for the younger kids while you're on your way back to passing off more Intake Forms." Happy was shooting Tony a look that said "We will talk about this later."
"Right! Yeah of course! Again, I am so sorry for bothering you with all of this Mister Hogan. I know you've been super busy.";
"Peter... Breathe... Relax..." Happy replied "It's all okay.. You did the right thing and handled the situation correctly by bringing it up straight to me..."
Peter looked visibly relieved at hearing those words.
"Right... Yeah.. Okay.. I guess I should show Mister Gray the way to get to the room for the younger kids and then get back to what I'm supposed to be doing!"
Peter held the door open so Tony could get out without jostling Morgan too much and once across the threshold Tony gestured for Peter to take the lead.